Nicole Noonan

Student finds connections between studying communities and serving them

"My inspiration for service stems from experiencing first-hand how my efforts can make a difference in people's lives."

Two things Nicole Noonan enjoys about majoring in cultural and regional geography: studying the complexity of the world and analyzing how that complexity shapes society. This perspective helped her discover a new passion for gardening.

Nicole channeled this interest through volunteering with Springfield Urban Agriculture Coalition. She recently helped plant apple trees at the Farmers Market Pavilion and is currently assisting the Coalition in expanding its schoolyard garden projects.

Nicole is creating curriculum that teaches kids to safely prepare, cook and eat foods from the garden. “For several years kids have been learning how to grow gardens," she said, "but now we'll be teaching them how to use and eat what they grow!”

In addition to Nicole's dedication to community engagement and environmental stewardship, she works as a lab assistant for Missouri State computer services and serves as president of the Bear Service Team.

Related posts

Dusting for fingerprints, scouring phone records and hunting for clues are all typical of police investigative work. Joshua Durham, double major in computer science and applied mathematics, found out computer forensics and other techniques are key to cracking cases in this age of technology. “As an intern, I learned about the techniques and tools used in computer forensics andhow to apply them to real world cases.”